Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) blasted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday for saying she’s open to dissolving the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Cheney, the House Republican Conference chairwoman, said it’s “absolute irresponsibility” to suggest that the agency be disbanded.
“It is a crucial agency and a crucial set of operations that keep this nation and keep our citizens safe,” Cheney said of the department, which was formed after the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
{mosads}“And the level of just absolute irresponsibility now that we are seeing in the Democratic side among someone who clearly is one of the intellectual leaders now in the Democratic Party, is really stunning,” Cheney said. “And we will continue to fight as Republicans to make sure we’re doing everything we can, everything necessary to uphold our constitutional obligation to defend this nation.”
Ocasio-Cortez told New Yorker Radio that Immigration and Customs Enforcement “and, frankly, the entire Department of Homeland Security” are “very large threats to American civil liberties.”
She also said she doesn’t believe the agency — which was established in 2002 — should have ever been created.
“I think so. I think we need to undo a lot of the egregious mistakes that the Bush administration did,” she told the New Yorker’s David Remnick. “I feel like it is a very qualified and supported position, at least in terms of evidence and in terms of being able to make the argument, that we never should have created DHS in the early 2000s.”